Collins to appeal ban ending his NPC season

7.40am

Jerry Collins will miss Wellington's NPC rugby semifinal against Waikato on Friday after being suspended or two weeks tonight.

He will also miss the final the following weekend if Wellington beat Waikato.

However, the All Black loose forward has appealed the judicial committee's decision to suspend him until October 27.

But after four hours of deliberations at the New Zealand Rugby Union headquarters in Wellington tonight, it is unlikely more can be said in defence of his high tackle on Southland No 8 Paul Miller in Invercargill last Saturday.

"I'm very disappointed about the outcome. I'm a bit embarrassed at the moment because I've let my team down at a crucial part of the year," a tired Collins said after the NZRU judicial hearing.

The All Blacks blindside said he had made a concerted effort to change his tackling technique in the last five months and that his NPC, Super 12 and All Blacks coaches had presented evidence to that effect.

But he appeared to have failed to convince the judicial committee of Bruce Squire, Mattie Blackburn and Bob Stuart.

In their decision the committee said players had a responsibility not to tackle above the shoulders and that Collins had "failed to exercise that care."

They also took into account that Collins had appeared previously on a similar offence.

At tonight's hearing, Collins maintained that his contact with Miller was not a tackle, was not dangerous and did not warrant a sending off.

However the committee were satisfied that Collins was guilty of a dangerous tackle, and that the referee was right to red card him.

The committee felt Collins' tackle was unacceptably high and carried an injury risk.

They heard Collins had made "considerable endeavours to improve his tackling technique in order to eliminate tackles of this kind from his game".

However the tackle was dangerously high and exposed Miller to risk of injury, the committee concluded.

Collins was suspended for two games during the Super 12 for a dangerous high shot on Crusaders and All Black lock Chris Jack.

Tonight's suspension is not likely to affect Collins' chances of All Black re-selection when the squad for the northern hemisphere tour is announced on October 26.

- NZPA

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